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The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly
voted unanimously Thursday evening to approve its capital improvement projects
priority list for fiscal years 2009 through 2013. Included on the list were six
major capital improvement projects the Borough will submit to the Alaska Congressional
delegation to the federal government.

Much of the discussion at the
meeting centered around the Assembly's top priority item on the list, the
Kodiak - Near Island Research and Administration facility, for which the
Borough is requesting just over 3-million dollars. The Alaska Department of
Fish and Game would use the additional space, which comes at a total cost of
about 14-million dollars, to conduct its ongoing research in science,
management and enforcement, including Stellar sea lion stocks, crab stocks and
ground fish.

Assembly member Sue Jeffrey said the
funding request was justified given the importance of fisheries and marine
research to Kodiak.

--(Capital
Improvements 144 sec."This is the responsible ... to dog this
project, basically.")

Assemblyman Jerrol Friend, who sits
on the Architectural Review Board, emphasized the potential versatility of the
proposed facility.

The state has already committed
roughly 5-million dollars to the project, and an application for 6-point-5
million dollars from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council is pending. An
additional investment of 3-point-1 million dollars would also be required.

Also included on the Assembly's
priority list were funding requests for the design, repair and construction of
the Anton Larsen Dock in the amount of 1-million dollars, 800-thousand dollars
for the Women's Bay Emergency shelter, 5-million dollars for maintaining
Kodiak's roads, 10-million dollars to pave, and upgrade Rezanof Drive and
23-million dollars for construction of a new high school. The Borough's total
federal funding requests amounted to roughly 43-million dollars.